Goofy Smiles and Bored Sighs: Maiko ficlets
by paynesgrey
Summary: A series of unrelated ficlets that center around the awkward and eccentric relationship between Mai and Zuko. Various ratings and genres. SPOILERS.
1. Alone Time

**AN: BOILING ROCK SPOILERS. For some reason I had Ty Lee and Mai in the same cell - it works for comedy's sake, but I'm guessing it's not exactly canon. D'oh! Try not to take this too seriously since it's a bit crackish.**

Alone Time

Zuko was completely out of it. Ever since he got back from the Boiling Rock, his face had held several different expressions, and he couldn't have appeared more distracted and aloof.

But it wasn't his usual pastime of aloofness. No, this was the type of behavior that kept his new comrades far, far away.

"What's wrong with him? What's with that smirk?" Katara looked scandalized; Aang looked confused.

Sokka huffed lightly. "Just leave him alone. He just saw his girlfriend, who helped us escape, and is no doubt in trouble right now with the Fire Nation."

They watched as Zuko glanced over at them suspiciously and immediately disappeared into forest.

"Looks like he needs some alone time," Suki commented.

"That's _guy_ alone time to you ladies," Sokka added. Katara's face scrunched in confusion, and Suki's eyes widened. Sokka gave them both a piercing yet knowing glare.

"Oh!" Suki and Katara looked at each other horrified.

"Yep, give him about oh… five, ten minutes," Sokka joked. Aang looked him nonplussed.

"Does it really take that long?" he asked innocently.

The girls bolted not a second later.

--

"What are you drawing?" Ty Lee asked as silence drummed away in their prison. It was a pretty nice prison, considering. Ty Lee imagined Azula's temper calmed down a bit. Even though she took away their weapons, she at least let Mai have some paper to doodle on.

Ty Lee peered over Mai's shoulder, who was vigorously drawing something of interest.

"Is that Zuko with a group of comets shooting toward him?"

Mai gritted her teeth. "Stupid jerk!" She pressed the charcoal hard against the paper in large, thick action lines as blobs of comets veered toward stick-person Zuko with an over-sized head and highly defined scar.

Clearly, Mai was still mad at Zuko.

"But I thought you said you loved him?" Ty Lee asked. Mai was close to ripping through the paper.

"I do, but he's still a jerk," Mai countered gruffly.

Ty Lee watched her with interest. "Ah…" She paused and delicately pulled a scroll that was hidden in her prison robe.

"Care to explain this then?" Ty Lee gave her a toothy grin as she presented another piece of paper with artistically defined Zuko and Mai drawings holding each other and kissing.

"Hey! How'd you find that?" Mai looked horrified. Ty Lee snickered.

"I was bored so I lifted it from your pockets. Wow, Mai, this is quite a bedtime story," she said, reading the script on the back of the drawing. Ty Lee clucked her tongue and shook her head. "Mai, I would have never guessed that from you."

Mai couldn't have turned any paler, so as Ty Lee continued to read her story.

"He pulled me to his chest and whispered, 'Let's go kill my sister together, tear her finger by finger, limb by limb, and drag her body into the courtyard for all to see. Then, I'll take you back to my room and remove every one of those hidden knives with my teeth…'"

"Gah!" Mai cried, grabbing the script from Ty Lee's hand and clutching it to her chest. She turned away with a slight flush of embarrassment.

"How dare you!" Mai shot at her.

Ty Lee laughed and patted the girl's back. "Oh, Mai, you're such a girl."

Mai didn't say a word, so Ty Lee continued, "I know how much you miss him, and it's okay. I mean, we're in here because of him…so if you ever need any _girl_ alone time, just let me know and I'll stuff my ears and turn to the wall, okay?"

Mai turned around and met Ty Lee's joyous expression. The blush soon drained from her face, and she looked annoyed.

Mai stiffened and then sighed in exasperation. "Ty Lee, I cannot believe you just said that to me."

Ty Lee chuckled good-naturedly and leaned against the prison wall. "Oooh, looks like someone might need some girl time right about now."

END


	2. On Her Terms

AN: Written for "Forgiveness" theme at maiko100 on Livejournal. Spoilers for "The Boiling Rock".

On Her Terms

"Make it up to me," she demanded, as her dark eyes peered into his. She frowned and watched him as his mouth dropped, eager to speak.

But she wouldn't let him. She tugged on the lapels of his shirt and slid her hands underneath the material against his bare chest. She could feel the air rise and fall in his lungs within his body.

"Mai... I'm sorry," he soothed. She let out a sigh of exasperation.

"I'm tired of hearing it." She tugged him down close to her face, and the air escaping his lips cascaded over hers. His breath became heavy and erratic - excited. "Show me."

He began to slowly peel away her outer clothing, and underneath her long rouge robe was her black undershirt and black skirt. When his hand slowly inched under her blouse, she slapped it away. She rewarded his surprised expression with a fierce glare.

"Not yet. You have to earn it." He tensed but then relaxed, and he cautiously dipped down and traced kisses down the curve her neck.

She closed her eyes and took him in - every lick, every breath. The hum of peace around them made her shiver in her bones. He sighed against her, and her body was more than ready.

But she would make herself wait; it was his punishment. He would make it up to her, and every minute she had to rot in a prison for him, she'd make him wait. She'd make him _work._

His hands were slow, hesitant, but most importantly, sensual. Mai sighed with breaking control. His fingers drummed against her taught waist and she tensed. A kiss to her nose soothed her again.

She felt her own lip quiver. "Stay with me. Don't you dare go away again." Her voice was sharp, tinted with a struggling vulnerability. She sucked in a draught of breath, and the next words barely came out above a whisper. "Pay back every tear I wasted on you." She wanted to call him a jerk, but the way his lips felt on her shoulder through her thin clothes held her stubbornness at bay.

Maybe she'd break to him sooner than she wanted. Maybe he'd get a taste of her before he was allowed.

"Mai... please, forgive me." Stupid. He was being stupid. She didn't want to hear it anymore; she just wanted to _feel_.

"Shut up and just kiss me, idiot," she cried harshly, drawing his face up into hers. He complied, and she felt herself melting when his tongue married with hers.

Damn it she missed him, but she wouldn't tell him yet. She wouldn't forgive him until he completely filled the blanks and cracks in time that they had lost.


	3. Mark of a New Beginning

Prompts: 'fools idolize fools' and 'beginnings'

Mark of a New Beginning

Mai was distracting him with her pacing around his office. While Zuko looked over the final touches to the revision of the Fire Nation justice department, he let out a heavy sigh.

"There's something bothering you. I can tell, so what is it?" he said, sounding a little more annoyed than he wanted to. She flashed him a frown.

"I don't see the point of these trials. Ozai and Azula are already in prison." Mai gave him a hard stare and crossed her arms. "Isn't that enough? I mean, it seems like a waste to parade them into a courtroom for the whole populace to see."

Zuko leaned back into his chair and looked up at the ceiling. He didn't know how many times he had to explain to her that these trials were necessary.

"I know that, but if we're going to show a new and more just Fire Nation, we have to start by making an example of them." He got up from his chair and approached her, and he lightly patted her arm. She nodded once, looking up at him. "The Fire Nation has had a history of violence and destruction for too long. It ends with them, and the trial only shows that even in regard to criminals, we can still give them fair judgment."

Mai looked up into his face, no longer angry and tortured as it once was. She mirrored his light smile. "I keep forgetting that so much has changed." He felt her soft hand stroke the line of his jaw. "How much _you_ have changed."

"I'm not the only one," he said just above a whisper, and he leaned down and gave her a light kiss. He felt her hands cup his cheeks as they sank into each other.

Reluctantly, he broke away to return to his chair. Mai leaned against his desk with a more hopeful expression. She picked up the new picture frame of them on his desk and stared at it.

"I never thought for once while I was following Azula that I was doing anything wrong. I feared her, but I also felt a thrill working for her. Palace life with my parents was such a bore, and fighting against the Avatar was so much more exciting. I never realized until I confronted my feelings about your defection that I was following the wrong path."

Zuko watched her intently and shrugged. "It doesn't matter now. That was how the Fire Nation was back then. That's how our parents molded us."

She put the picture down and sighed. "I know, but we'd never thought to question following a tyrannical fool." She put the picture down and started to leave his office. "I'll leave you be. You have a lot of preparations for the trials." She stopped at the doorway. "Zuko?"

"Hmmm?" He looked up from his papers momentarily to meet her calm face.

"You don't have any reservations about trying your own sister and father, do you?"

He raised an eyebrow and smiled. "No. You don't even have to ask." She nodded. "It's a new beginning, Mai. The Avatar brought that to us."

"You helped too. Don't forget that," she mockingly scolded him.

"I know. My role here isn't finished. I have to repair the damage of this Fire Nation and bring our people together. It all starts with the trial."

She rewarded him with one last smile before she left. Zuko slouched down into his chair and made a face at the stacks of papers in front of him. There were so many Fire Nation officials to try. Many of them would probably get off with minor infractions as long as they were willing to reform.

But his father and sister… He frowned. The Avatar had obviously left his father powerless when he took away his bending. His crimes spoke for themselves, but he could no longer damage anyone. Who would have thought his father, the once great Fire Lord Ozai, would someday rot away in a cell?

He didn't even know what to think of Azula. The last he'd seen of her, she'd been taken away in shackles and escorted to a high-security mental facility deep within the heart of the underground city. Reports from the guards said the former princess was no longer herself. She was a mere shell of a girl, and surprisingly enough, she was no longer competent to even use her bending to attempt escape. She spent the majority of her days muttering gibberish to herself, unaware of the world around her.

He didn't mind that Mai questioned his decision though. For so long they'd blindly followed the way of the Fire Nation elite. Destruction and dominance was the only thing they grew up with. For the longest time, it was the only thing they'd ever known.

Though, with him and the Avatar, things were beginning to change. He'd no longer follow the foolhardy ways of a corrupt lord. He was lord now, and Zuko would follow his own course. His father and sister would get what they truly deserved, retribution for the sins they committed against their people and this world.

Zuko looked out the window to the setting sun. The first trial would be in a few days, and then once the former Fire Lord Ozai was tried, reform would truly begin. His people and the world would see the dawn of a new day.

They would see that with him as the new lord, the Fire Nation was finally capable of justice and peace.


End file.
